Business Background Defines Chief of Staf

  WASHINGTON — He is a top executive at JPMorgan Chase, where he is paid as much as $5 million a year and supervises the Washington lobbying efforts of the nation’s second-largest bank. He also serves on the board of directors at Boeing, the giant military contractor, and Abbott Laboratories, the global drug company, which has billions of dollars at stake in the overhaul of the health care system.And now William M. Daley, the son and brother of Chicago mayors and a behind-the-scenes political player himself, will hold one of the most powerful jobs in Washington: chief of staff in the White House, where he will help decide who gets into the Oval Office and what President Obama’s Capitol Hill agenda should be.

Mr. Daley’s recruitment to Pennsylvania Avenue from the corporate boardroom is seen as a smart step by some in Washington, who argue that Mr. Obama has long needed a White House confidant who has the ear of the business community and a record of bipartisanship that might help the president negotiate with Republicans in Congress.

“I think it’s a very, very strong choice,” said Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been a harsh critic of the Obama administration and provided financial support that helped Republicans take control of the House in the November elections. “Daley is a business person who understands politics.”

Mr. Daley, or the corporations he has served in recent years, have worked aggressively behind the scenes to water down or defeat central elements of Mr. Obama’s agenda, opposing the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and elements of the health care bill.

That record is among the reasons his appointment, announced by Mr. Obama on Thursday afternoon, has alarmed some of the president’s liberal supporters, who say that bringing Mr. Daley into the White House violates a commitment to curtail the sway of special interests.

“As the chief of staff, he is the gatekeeper, and that means real power in Washington,” said Ellen S. Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, which celebrated the move by Mr. Obama early in his presidency to release detailed logs of White House visitors and to impose restrictions on hiring lobbyists as aides. “Just about any way you look at it, it creates a huge potential for a conflict of interest.”

The chief of staff job has sometimes been filled by corporate types, like Donald T. Regan, a top Wall Street executive and former Treasury secretary, who held the job in the Reagan administration. But more often, it goes to a political insider whose primary allegiance is to the president.

Mr. Daley, 62, who is not close to Mr. Obama even though both consider Chicago their base, has a well-rounded résumé. He has been a lawyer in private practice, a bank president, a telecommunications company executive, a political strategist, a fund-raiser and campaign chief, a lobbyist for foreign corporations (he advocated on tax matters for Nestlé and a Canadian petroleum company) and the commerce secretary in the Clinton administration for three years. His brother, Richard M. Daley, is departing after six terms as mayor of Chicago, where his family has an almost royal status.

Mr. Obama, during a ceremony in the East Room on Thursday, cited that long list of jobs as part of the reason he picked Mr. Daley.

“Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job,” the president said, adding that he was “convinced that he’ll help us in our mission of growing our economy and moving America forward.”

JPMorgan Chase has been Mr. Daley’s primary corporate home since 2004. He was hired, company officials said, as something of consolation prize to Chicago when Chase, which has its headquarters in New York, was taking over Bank One, which was based in Chicago. Chase executives, including Jamie Dimon, its chairman, wanted to bring in someone with Chicago connections who could smooth over relations with wealthy clients and corporations there.

One Chase official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, recalled, “A few bankers said we should hire a Bill Daley,” meaning someone with Chicago political connections and clout who could serve as a new public face for Chase.

Mr. Dimon’s response was simple: “How about Bill Daley?”

Mr. Daley started as chairman of Chase’s Midwest operations, but by 2007 he had expanded his portfolio, joining the bank’s senior leadership team as chief of its new Office of Corporate Social Responsibility, whose most important function was to oversee the company’s global lobbying efforts.

At the time, Chase was trying to raise its profile in Washington. Senior company executives, including Mr. Dimon, began taking more trips to the capital to try to influence the terms of the TARP bailout — they pushed to make it easier for banks to repay the money — in 2008. Last year, Chase officials fought aspects of the historic revision of the nation’s financial regulations, including the creation of the consumer protection bureau.

Mr. Daley was never registered as a lobbyist for Chase, but he played a role in hiring and was the direct supervisor of Peter L. Scher, another former Clinton administration official, who runs the bank’s lobbying shop in Washington. Mr. Daley also served as the bank’s chief liaison with the White House, frequently consulting with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, and Rahm Emanuel, whom he is replacing.

Mr. Daley’s salary is not public, but one person with knowledge of Chase’s executive compensation said that he has made $3 million to $5 million a year. He will be taking a considerable pay cut in accepting the $170,000-a-year White House post.

Boeing, which is also based in Chicago, named Mr. Daley to its board in 2006, saying that his appointment would enhance its lobbying efforts and help promote international sales of its commercial planes and military equipment. In 2009, he earned $230,000 from Boeing in compensation and stock awards and $220,867 from Abbott Laboratories.

Abbott Labs, like Boeing and Chase, has a long list of regulatory and legislative matters in play in Washington, like a tax in the health care bill that could cost medical-device makers like Abbott $20 billion over the next decade. A White House chief of staff is likely to be involved in discussions about repealing the legislation, as House Republicans have proposed, or aspects of it.

Critics of Mr. Daley’s appointment said his corporate work would cause problems. They argue that he will have to recuse himself from matters relating to Chase, Abbott and Boeing or bow out of discussions involving financial regulations, health care and major Defense Department acquisitions, like the contract for a giant Air Force refueling tanker for which Boeing is competing.

“These are all issues that come across the chief of staff’s desk,” said James A. Thurber, an American University professor and specialist on ethics and lobbying in Washington. “Is he going to stand outside of the flow as each of them heads to the president? I don’t see that, and if he doesn’t, there will the perception, and maybe the reality, of a conflict of interest.”

Others dismiss such concerns as unfounded, saying that Mr. Daley, who is to start his new job as early as next week, would not make decisions on policy and would hardly have sole power over who sees the president.

Supporters of the appointment say Mr. Daley’s diversity of experience is exactly what Mr. Obama needs — an experienced manager who can serve as an intermediary for the White House with various constituencies whose support is critical to the president. David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president who is leaving the White House soon, said Mr. Obama thought hard before naming his new top aide.

“The chief is the only one in the administration who has as broad a responsibility as the president, and he’s the one who’s ultimately accountable to the president,” Mr. Axelrod said in an interview. “It is a very, very serious and consequential decision.”

Jackie Calmes contributed reporting from Washington, and Eric Dash from New York. Barclay Walsh contributed research.